I have to admit that I was starting to get kind of worried after reading/annotating a few essays and discovering that I really didn't have much to say. Colonial history is not really my thing, so it was hard for me to participate in the discussions. When I opened my course reader to page 39 and saw that I was going to have to read an 11 page essay I said to myself sarcastically, "Oh boy, this is going to be a blast." Actually, I was right. I'm excited for our discussion tomorrow because I have LOTS to say about this essay.
If this essay made me one thing, it would be ANGRY. Kind of funny, isn't it? This essay described how God is an angry person, and in the end it turned me into one! I'm not the most religious person in the world, but I do know some things about God and Christianity, and I feel like this essay was definitely a counterpart to commonplace knowledge.
This essay was definitely written in a pessimistic tone, which could potentially be why it made me in such a bad mood. I pick up on those kind of things. I hated how the author constantly repeated phrases such as wrath of God and condemned to hell. Like honestly, how can he prove or back up any of the statements that he made? Did he have a one-on-one chat with God before he wrote this? I don't think so. Sure, he may have found some hell-bound and negative quotes from the Bible, but there are plenty more verses about how God forgives us and loves us unconditionally.
I did not spend more than five summers of my life at Bible Camp and hours at church to learn that God hates me. According to Edwards God apparently, "looks upon me as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire." Seriously?!? This is definitely not true. I've learned from countless songs and sermons that God loves me and everyone else--no matter what they do. We can be forgiven of our sins, no matter how bad they may be. God wants us to be happy.
Edwards essay is terrible, to be quite honest. I don't have strong emotions on many things, but this essay is definitely one of them! My religious faith has nothing to do with this argument that I'm making. Honestly, if our God was so spiteful and hated everyone like Edwards says, then our world would be a much different place and no one would have such strong beliefs or love for a God that wants everyone to burn in hell. This is ridiculous, I'm outta here!
Link: God So Does Love Us!
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Holy crap, I'm glad I'm not alone in this. I feel bad for having so little input during class time and in my annotations; but to be completely honest this subject matter does nothing for me. I can tell alot of people are enjoying it though, so there must be something to it. Can't like everything I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything Chelsea...including that I'm not big on the things we've been reading. This one evoked more out of me than anything else we've read. I really like your comment about questioning whether Edwards had a one-on-one chat with God! Whether he had evidence and facts to back up his arguements was a big issue that I had with the essay as well. While my personal religion did factor into how I feel about this, I agree that even if that wasn't a factor, I think I would still hate this essay. And I love your conclusion because it most certainly is RIDICULOUS!
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly not defending Edward's creed, but in the end it turns out that the ten pages of condemnation are all aimed at non-Christians, and the last paragraphs indicate that Jesus does, in fact, love you. That is still extremely different from the statement "God loves everyone." It is intolerant of everyone non-Christian, so no, it doesn't say that God hates you, Chelsea and Sam, but God does hate me, and that /is/ RIDICULOUS!
ReplyDeleteWow, I couldn't have said it better myself! I really have been having a hard time getting into the essays this quarter because I feel like I took APUS already, I dont need to retake the SAME CLASS. :( That and I hate history...but when I read this article, I litereally laughed out loud. It was obsurd on so many different levels I couldn't believe it. What an angry guy I kept thinking. He must have some traumatic experience thats lead him to believe god hates the world so much...I would love to know what it was! ;) haha. Overal, I loved your post, I completely agree!!
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